A chef's guide on how to (properly) clean your kitchen

Your kitchen-cleaning fairy godmother is here

Hello to my lovely subscribers - old and new! It’s already been eight months of me Substacking - can you believe it?! I’ve been reflecting a lot recently on the year so far. Maybe it’s the season changing and it being the ‘back to school’ month that’s got me feeling cosy and nostalgic.

I’m also looking to the future – the rest of the year, that I’m sure will whizz past as it always does – and all the exciting projects and trips I have planned, plus Christmas and the new year… I do have some exciting holiday content planned (stay tuned for some special treats). But in the meantime, this seasonal reset has got me in a real nesting mood.

Just to clarify I’m not pregnant - it’s more the kind of nesting you do when it starts to get a bit miserable and cold outside and you just want to make your home, well… homely. There is something romantic about the torrential rain we’ve been having, but more than anything it’s making me want to stay indoors. I love my adventures and travelling, but I’m also a bit of a homebody. My home is my private sanctuary and I like it to be safe, cosy, clean, somewhere I can truly relax and unwind.

But let’s talk about cleaning. Some of you will be excited by that sentence and some of you will think; what the hell is so exciting about cleaning?

Whichever camp you fall in, a seasonal clean is actually - in my opinion - the best way to reset. Think about it: there is no better feeling than getting into bed with fresh, crisp sheets. No clutter around to make you feel overwhelmed. Everything smells lovely and there are no mucky fingerprints or watermarks anywhere.

You’ve heard of a spring clean I’m sure. Chuck out old clothes, clear out the pantry, do a big deep clean, etc etc. I do this every quarter I would say - as the seasons change - but I am constantly cleaning the kitchen. It’s the room in the house I spend the most time in; cooking for the family or filming content for my Instagram.

Having done countless cleans, I sort of go on autopilot now and I’ve got a routine that I follow to make sure every corner and crevice and appliance is cleaned to the point of being (almost) as good as new. I’ve written a whoooole checklist of EVERYTHING I do to clean my kitchen… What I use, how I do it, any tips/hacks for stubborn grease marks or funky smells. Let’s get into it.